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One Ride Review: 2017 Eddy Merckx Strasbourg 71 gravel bike

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With the giant trade shows behind us, we used Interbike’s east coast Cyclofest as an opportunity to actually get on some of the latest bikes, and here’s the first of our One Ride Reviews from the weekend. Kicking it off is the 2017 Eddy Merckx Strasbourg 71 gravel road bike, a very capable and extremely well thought out adventure bike. Video review above, supporting pics below. For the full technical run down, check the link at the bottom.

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Plenty of tire clearance front and rear, even with rack and fender mounts.

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The fork’s crown gives you two mounting options for fenders and racks.

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A Kevlar outer layer runs all the way down the downtube, around the BB and up the backside of the seat tube, protecting the frame in all those areas where rocks like to fly.

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The lower half of the frame is stout, providing a solid platform on which to grind through the miles, but the rest of the bike makes saddle time a little more comfortable. From the internal routing to flat mount brakes to the stealth thru axles and rack mounts, the Strasbourg is one very clean looking bike that’s just begging you to get it dirty.

Full tech specs are in our Interbike coverage.

EddyMerckx.com

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Rider X
Rider X
8 years ago

Are you certain that those hidden mounts are indeed for racks? I do not know of any racks on the market that would be compatible without some custom milled adapters. Does the bike include such adapters, or are all expected to own our own milling machine?

Pete
Pete
8 years ago

In case you haven’t noticed, the entire industry has gotten away from true bolt-on.
Like it or not, fabrication is the new game.
Fender mounts? Fetch something from the bin & trim to match.

Almost all of the bikes I wrenched this year have required customized parts.
Standards are so 20th century.

mudrock
mudrock
8 years ago

Planet Bike style fenders, with their steel stays, would work with that bike. The bendable stays on Blackburn style racks would also be no problem. They bikes that try to conceal their attachment points are the worst. This one doesn’t look so bad.

BR: a good first effort on the video review, but the ground-level shot to begin and end the segment is a little weird. Try something not so intimidating. Actions shots, too.

Paul
Paul
8 years ago

It’s not Kevlar – It’s an applied surface layer called Innegra which is a woven polypropylene/carbon fabric that has better ballistic properties than Kevlar with none of the drawbacks such as UV stability and can be coloured – Unlike Kevlar. Kevlar is soooooooooooo 2014

joerider
joerider
8 years ago

Kevlar is a specific trade name used by Dupont and they are trying harder to maintain control over it’s useage as a more common term for Aramid and similar woven materials.

mrazekan
mrazekan
8 years ago

Thanks for the review. Definitely made me go check it out further on their site.

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